Abstract
State-resolved measurements on clean Ni(100) and Ni(111) surfaces quantify the reactivity of excited to of the bend vibration. A comparison with prior data reveals that is significantly less effective than the stretch at promoting dissociative chemisorption, even though contains 30% more energy. These results contradict statistical theories of gas-surface reactivity, provide clear evidence for vibrational mode specificity in a gas-surface reaction, and point to a central role for stretching motion along the reaction path to dissociative chemisorption.
- Received 2 December 2004
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.94.208303
©2005 American Physical Society